going back to the simple things…….

Well, I have been really busy. I wish I could say that I have been busy getting important things done, but I really can’t. Just busy with life and no time for blogging. We had the stomach flu attack our house a week or so ago and it was absolutely horrible. Gracie was sick with the flu for three days and was just a mess. Ever since then she has turned into a Velcro Baby and won’t let me put her down and she hates it when I’m even close to my laptop, so no computer time for me. We have gotten a lot of things done around the house. We painted our living room a colonial blue, our kitchen/dining room a warm yellow and our basement “Gumball Red”. That is now the entertainment zone and lots of fun. We also put new, white doors on two of the closets on the main floor and have 3 more to put up.

I guess my big goal for the new year is to actually use my planner, EVERY DAY! I bought a new, smaller one that can fit in my purse and new pages and it’s all ready to go. I also want to start doing monthly planning for activities for the kids to do, especially ones that follow along with the church liturgical celebrations and saint feast days. And, scrapbook more…….of course. I counted up the number of layouts that I have completed and the number of photos I have scrapped this year and I was quite amazed. I think it’s the most I have ever done! I have done 119 pages and scrapped 350 photos in 2008! I am really proud of myself for that. I just need to get them into albums. Plus, I want to blog more! Now I just have to find the time to do these things! Hopefully my new little planner will help out in that department!

Here’s our tree for this year! I was so excited because we changed our color scheme to good, old red and white. I LOVE it!

So we finally ordered some coffee from Mystic Monk and it is WONDERFUL!!!! The service was fast and the coffee is really, really good. We have been wanting to support Monasteries and Abbeys and this is a delicious way to support this group of Carmalite Monks. We ordered the ‘Big Monk, Little Monks’ set which came with one 12-ounce bag and two sample bags of coffee. We have only tried our big bag, which was Sumatran, so far. Our little bags are Mystic Monk Blend and Dark Roast Columbian. I’m anxious to try them!!!

Well, I need to purge out some of the photos on my blog here. Flickr is warning me that I’m at 175 photos and I can only have 200 to stay on their free program. I can’t justify paying for something extra like that so I’m going to go through and delete old posts/photos and weed down some in other areas. Maybe one day I can pay for photo storage like that, but not now and it’s definitely not one of my priorities. We have bigger fish to fry right now. lol I do hope to be able to spend some time on here and add links to some of my favorite blogs and websites. Maybe sometime soon………… 🙂

Lots of reading is going on in my house……..I needed another bookmark. The first one that I made for myself is quite big so I needed a smaller one that would easily fit into a paperback book. The quote says, “There is time…for everything.”~Thomas Edison. I had to put in my two cents worth and add, “especially books”. lol It’s lot of fun to make these and oh-so easy! Now I need to go grab my new book that I bought today and get to reading!

Here’s a corner bookmark that I made today for my daughter, Abby. I thought of the “this is my spot” idea sometime late last night and I almost got up to make this bookmark, because I could see the completed project so clearly in my head. lol I tried to make it fun and use her favorite colors. It’s a surprise and a good thing to give her today because she and I went to the bookstore this afternoon and she got a new book to read. She’s just like I am……..always with her nose in a book!

So I am trying to watch the Jets/Redskins game that’s on right now and I’m really having a hard time with it! I keep on yelling “GO PACKERS!!!!!!!!!!!” And Brett Favre just doesn’t look like Brett Favre in white and green! Where is the green and gold? I have to keep checking, shaking my head, blinking my eyes and reminding myself that he’s no longer a Packer. Wow. It’s almost too much to comprehend! lol But, alas, I am still a Packers fan, through and through. I will follow Brett and wish him the best as a Jet and follow all of his games there. I can’t hide the fact that I’m just a football fan. I have my favorite teams, but if there is a football game on TV……..I’m watching it! So, I had better get back and watch this game. Brett’s coming back out to play and it’s time for me to start blinking my eyes and shaking my head again. Maybe by the end of the season it will have sunk in………. I don’t think so. lol

Okay, I admit it. I am a HUGE Harry Potter fan. I even have a silly countdown for the next movie that’s coming out on my desktop from Mugglenet. So, today I finally get on-line and look at it and it went from 97 days until the movie (which it said yesterday) to 335 days today!!!! Oh my gosh!!!! I am going to flip out! I was really looking forward to this next movie this Autumn! So, alas. I am quite distraught. Just like Moaning Myrtle. boo hoo………

I’m semi-excited about the Twilight movie, but afraid to put too much hope into it. I just don’t know if it’s going to be a good movie or not. We’ll see. lol